Ichneumenoptera chrysophanes (Meyrick, 1886)
Clearwing Persimmon Borer
(previously known as Carmenta chrysophanes)
SESIINAE,   SESIIDAE,   SESIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


female
(Photo: courtesy of Jeremy Barker, taken in Palmwoods, Queensland)

These Caterpillars are a pest because they eat the bark of

  • Persimmon trees ( Diospyros kaki, EBENACEAE ).

    They have also been caught on :

  • the branches of Fig ( Ficus, MORACEAE ),
  • the bark of Gum Trees ( Eucalyptus, MYRTACEAE ),
  • the bark of Red Ash ( Alphitonia excelsa, RHAMNACEAE ), and
  • galls on Native Cherry ( Exocarpus cupressiformis, SANTALACEAE ).


    male
    (Photo: courtesy of Matthew Frawley, Kambah, Australian Capital Territory)

    The adults of this species are dimorphic. The abdomen of the male is black sparsely covered in yellow hairs, and there is a large tuft of dark brown hairs on the tip of the abdomen. The abdomen of the female is yellow with a yellow anal tuft. The wings of both sexes have large transparent areas, and gold wingtips. The wingspan is about 2 cms.


    male
    (Picture: courtesy of CSIRO Entomology)

    The species has been found in

  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Australian Capital Territory, and
  • Victoria.


    Further reading :

    W. Donald Duckworth & Thomas D. Eichlin,
    Clearwing Moths of Australia and New Zealand (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae),
    Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology,
    Number 180 (1974), pp. 11, 28, 29.

    Edward Meyrick,
    Revision of Australian Lepidoptera. I,
    Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
    Series 2, Volume 1, Part 3 (1886), pp. 689-690, No. 2.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 194.

    Richard A. Vickers & Eric R. Rumbo,
    Sex pheromone components of the clearwing borer, Carmenta chrysophanes (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae): Provisional identification and field tests,
    Australian Journal of Entomology,
    Volume 40, part 1 (February 2001), pp. 68-73.

    Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
    A Guide to Australian Moths, CSIRO Publishing, 2007, pp. 107, 108.


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    (updated 20 October 2012, 6 February 2018, 18 December 2020)